Company investigated for GM Korea corporate espionage

According to General Motors, South Korea’s prosecutors are currently probing one of the automaker’s contractors for potential leaks of technology.

The contractor is according to company information investigated over potential corporate espionage crimes – allegedly leaking overseas the US automaker’s proprietary engine technology.

Kim Byeong Soo, a spokesman at GM Korea, said – although he declined to name the investigated company – that prosecutors raided the design firm on Tuesday in search of evidence for the further continuation of their probe. He added that the No.1 US automaker and the third biggest in the world – behind Japan’s Toyota and Germany’s Volkswagen – has also started its own internal review to asses the situation and potential damages.

According to a subsequent report by News1, the leak was found not by General Motor, but through a special division within South Korea’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, with the unit tasked to monitor and find high-technology and financial crimes. The intelligence network has proven rather secretive, as Bloomberg News tried to contact both the country’s Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, while an officer from the special division – which didn’t even decline his name – said the internal procedures prevent them from commenting on investigations that haven’t been completed.